Basking In The Son

“I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

“Whatcha doing?” Aaron’s question caused me to peer over my shoulder from my crouched position, a tray of seedlings half pulled from beneath the artificial lights.

“I’m checking my baby plants. These florescent bulbs can only do so much. Where is the warmer weather? Where is the sunshine?!” I sighed heavily as I shoved the tray back where it belonged and stood. “Things are going to start dying if I can’t get them outside and in the sun, even for a few hours a day.”

The wordsmith in me appreciates the phonic irony of calling that life-sustaining orb of light and warmth the “sun” even as we refer to Jesus as the “Son.” But the gardener in me sees the practical reality in the sun/Son analogy every year we have an unseasonably cold spring.

Living in The Tundra (aka Minnesota) means I need to start many of my seedlings indoors, long before the soil and daytime temps are warm enough to sustain tender, green life. My grow lights are usually enough to get the seeds sprouted and life started, but left too long with only artificial light, my plants limp along, small and weakly, barely surviving, and certainly not thriving.

It’s always amazing to me that spending afternoons outside on temperate days, even when the sky is overcast, is a far better option for my seedlings than grow lights hovering less than an inch above them. It’s a beautiful reminder of how necessary the presence of Jesus is to my own day-to-day emotional and physical well-being.

I can read all the self-help books and follow all the self-care routines in the world, but those are—at best—temporary fixes for surface symptoms. They are not a permanent fix for the real issue: my need for ongoing spiritual rootedness in an often dark, confusing, chaotic world. As today’s verse reminds us, following Jesus means we have the light leading to life and that we will no longer walk in darkness. His presence brings spiritual life to me, similarly to the way the sun brings physical life to my seedlings. I don’t know about you, but that is a promise to which my grateful, winter-weary soul clings.

Julie

Today’s Act of Gratitude

How can you add a little extra Jesus to your day-to-day spiritual health?